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My payment was similar and also ended up being like 2.18 in reality because they would only pay via some sketchy gift card app. And rather than download that app and give it access to my phone and digital wallet I insisted they print a physical gift card, which they did do, but they charged me $5 of the settlement fee for
There should really be regulation that such a thing has to be paid by check or wire transfer but that’s obviously not going to happen when they can enrich their friends sketchy gift card company and our country lacks any regulatory capacity at all. That’s what got us to the point that this pathetic settlement was considered acceptable (and equifax will continue to do their destructive business, probably with no real change to security)
On the web, after claiming the money, it displayed the debit card number which was immediately activated and which I used to buy an Amazon gift card for the exact amount. That debit card has $7.44 on it for less than a minute.
Cost of doing business is such a drop in the bucket for these companies... Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc etc etc. These settlements are just that... Business.
I agree with you, it should be regulated. But if you'd clicked through they give you an image of a credit card that doesn't need the app. I used it to buy a gift card from a store I regularly use that way it doesn't expire or accumulate BS fees.
What gift card doesn’t have an activation fee or maintenance fees? Genuinely thought they all had a $5 activation fee but I typically have only ever bought generic visa/mastercard gift cards. I rarely buy them though so I’m not well versed on this
The only thing I know that has a fee is if you want a visa card which you can use everywhere. Most digital stores (Nintendo, Lyft, Amazon) want you to purchase the gift card because it locks you into their ecosystem. Some will even give you a discount on a gift card because they get the money now for nothing, and can invest that. The company also wants you to buy a gift card because there's always some percentage that goes lost and unclaimed, so that's free money for them.
I did Amazon since you can easily put in the exact amount from the payment. You can do the same for Target. I've also used these types of refunds to make a partial payment on some of my utility bills.